


The Importance of Being Family

by lifevolutionary



Series: Kith and Kin [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Mpreg, Pre-Slash, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-21
Updated: 2010-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-10 05:24:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifevolutionary/pseuds/lifevolutionary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Castiel gets pregnant it freaks everyone the fuck out, except Gabriel, who just laughs so hard that he can't actually breathe for five minutes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Importance of Being Family

**Author's Note:**

> This won't make much sense unless you've already read Family Business.

None of them, not Cas, not Dean, not Sam, understands why Gabriel hangs around for the clean-up. Why he stays with Team Free Will now that Lucifer's dead. He doesn't blame them for their confusion; if he hadn't met Robert and Joanna, if he'd _actually_ killed Lucifer himself, he probably would have only stayed long enough to enjoy the congratulations before going to mourn somewhere in private.

But he did meet them, his and Cas' fledglings, and they did save his life so it's the least he can do to hang around and make sure they actually get born. The fact that he now knows that Sam doesn't hate him quite as much as he'd thought...actually, that has quite a lot to do with it too.

Mainly, he stays because he's finally realised that he's misses having family. Cas is his brother, the only one he can stand these days and in the ten minutes he knew them the kids worked their way in under his skin. In time, he thinks, the Winchesters will be family too, no matter how brain-breaking it is to even think about applying that label to Dean Winchester.

In the interest of family harmony and Joanna finding her way back into his life, he doesn't break Dean's face the first time he corrupts Gabriel's little brother. He hopes, one day, Dean will return the favour.

When Castiel gets pregnant it freaks everyone the fuck out, except Gabriel, who just laughs so hard that he can't actually breathe for five minutes. Archangels don't need to, of course, but that's a record in amusement induced asphyxiation even for him.

Sam doesn't speak to him for a week after they find out and Cas is practically into his second trimester by the time Dean stops giving Gabriel the silent treatment. But they all eventually accept that Gabriel's stinginess with life altering information has worked out for the best. It probably has something to do with how happy Cas looks all the time.

A few times Gabriel catches Sam looking at him strangely but he can't decipher the expression and he knows that if he wants a relationship with Sam, and he does, then his self-imposed ban on mind reading has to stick. It's not until it's happened a couple more times that Gabriel realises that the look always comes after Sam has caught Gabriel staring at Cas' bump. He still can't decipher the look but it gives him hope that that maybe it won't be quite as hard as he thought to guide all their lives onto the intended path.

He can't tell any of them, of course. He knows how the Winchesters feel about destiny and Castiel can't keep anything a secret from Dean these days. This knowledge of the future, of the direction their lives are heading in, is a secret that is only his to keep. And it is this secret that means none of the others can know the real reason Gabriel didn't tell them certain facts about Angel biology.

This secret that means none of the them can be there to see, as he crouches beside the cot containing Dean and Cas' daughter, only hours old and not yet named. As he strokes a finger down her cheek and whispers softly.

"Hey Joanna, it's nice to finally meet you properly."

~*~ ~*~

Gabriel dotes on Joanna. Cas is happy about it, but then Cas is almost perpetually happy these days, as if he feels the need to make up for all the angsting he did during the apocalypse, now that he actually has something to be happy about. Sam is confused, as if he's had a mental picture of Gabriel that's now being messed with and he can't quite get the new information to mesh with the old. Dean is suspicious, of course.

But Dean is still a hunter down to his bones, even though he's got a baby daughter now, and he's liable to go stir-crazy if he has to stay in one place for too long. So they move about, renting a place for a few months at a time now that they've got Gabriel to provide the money but though Dean will accept financial aid he considers using Archangel powers on a hunt cheating. Which is how, more often than not, Gabriel ends up as the stay-at-home babysitter.

Like now. The others are all out on a salt-and-burn; they wouldn't have taken Cas but they've had some issues over what it is they're supposed to be burning and Cas is apparently far enough down the Angel food chain that his powers don't count as cheating, so Gabriel is alone in the house with Joanna.

He's curled up in an armchair, with her cradled, sleeping, in his arms. Even after six months he still holds her and talks to her whenever he can; her soul is _familiar_ and it resonates with every protective instinct he has, with every part of him that can still love like the pure Archangel he once was. She is physically familiar too; though her short, soft hair is pure blonde so far, yet to be tinged with brown like Dean's, the skin across her nose displays a smattering of freckles and she has eyes as blue as he remembers, already shining with intelligence. He hopes the other emotion he remembers seeing so vividly in her eyes, the satisfaction of a kill, will not be one he sees again for a good number of years yet.

Gabriel's still sitting there when the others come back. Joanna has woken up and is gurgling happily at him and playing with his hair. He can feel Sam's eyes on him, knows Sam is standing in the doorway watching him with that strange expression on his face but he doesn't look up.

Letting Joanna curl her tiny fingers around one of his own while Sam's heavy gaze lingers on them both, Gabriel wonders if he will love Robert, his own fledgling, even more than he loves this girl with his brother's eyes. Wonders how much this family will break him and how much better everything will be once they've put him back together again.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Importance of Being Family [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1372750) by [Tbowen71](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tbowen71/pseuds/Tbowen71)




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